See the restoration of Sothis for the further adventures of the statue of the goddess.
To get to the temple a visitor will have to enter the subway-to-be through one of the construction sites in central Cairo. The tunnel is dimly lit by flickering fluorescent lamps, revealing big concrete braces holding it up. Transport is done using noisy trolleys along temporary rails. Around 400 meters in, the tunnel ends at the dig.
The dig is an irregular series of chambers, with walls and roof held up by makeshift pylons and lamps strung out randomly. The first chamber seems to correspond to the remains of a colonnade, with fallen pylons and one very well-preserved sphinx. This is fairly well studied, and the dig has continued to the second chamber, which corresponds to a small hypostyle hall and an antechamber. The walls and most pylons appear to have collapsed, but the inscriptions are quite readable (see finds below). The dig has currently reached the entrance to the sanctuary, a doorway filled with silt.
Beside the professor there are a number of his graduate students, several Egyptian archaeologists and some workers at the dig.
Mme Granboul-Ponty is quietly keeping an eye on the dig; she is not that worried by it (there are many much more active sites in Egypt), but it is best to be on the certain side.
Study of the ruins reveals signs that the temple was abandoned, probably at the end of the fifth dynasty. Archaeological studies imply that the duty of master timekeeping was in the hands of the priesthood of Ra and Thoth beyond this time. It is strange that so little is mentioned about the cult of Sothis, it may have been local.
The sanctum, which has not yet been dug out, is empty. On the throne where the statue of Sothis would have been there is nothing. No ceremonial objects remain, but the engravings in the wall give a long adoration to Sothis and her mastery over the Nile, and her role in protecting and nurturing the Horus child. The ceiling is painted with an elaborate sky map, with Sothis and the constellation Orion/Horus in clear view.
It bears the inscription "The Great Warrior Horus, King of the Land". Intriguingly, the stars are marked with cartouches containing their old names; if somebody compares this to old texts about the pyramids they will see that these star names are sometimes mentioned in connection with them, fitting the Pattern perfectly. In addition, there are two lines from the constellation linked to stars with names that can be shown to correspond to two landmarks - this reveals the correct angles of the Pattern.
Trond will get an intense vision if he enters the temple, that will send him into a frenzy: How priests of Re, together with the soldiers of the king approach the temple and begin to loot it. The priests go into the sanctum and remove the holy papyri and the goddess! They claim they do it on the order of the king, to bring her to Heliopolis. For a while Trond will speak with the voice of Neberkerm, the priest of Sothis. An old, frightened and desperate man who pleads for the return of the treasures of the temple.